Hey all! The FFTCG Shirt designs just keep coming. I recently started a poll on the Final Fantasy TCG Marketplace regarding my next shirts, and the outpouring of love and inspiration was so incredible! I am having so much fun making these for players who love the game, and I hope to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

This week has been wild.
Anyone who knows me, knows that my life is kind of engulfed by Final Fantasy Trading Cards, as my husband runs Cards of Ivalice and is neck-deep in card brewing, inventory, deck testing, and chit chat. So it would only make sense that I’d take my designs and market close to home!

I’m SO happy with the turn out so far! As long as the players still want them, I’m going to keep designing. It’s been a good week for ideas, puns, and new designs! So far we have completed designs for Mono Ice, Mono Earth, and a community meme icon, Foil King Max. Up next will be mono lightning- and after that, we have water, fire, and wind remaining. What comes then will be up to the community!

This is probably the busiest time of my entire life. I’m getting married in two weeks, and my fiance is holding his very first card tournament.Final Fantasy has often been an influence in my artwork, often inspiring me during times I would be otherwise completely uninspired. I think it’s wonderful that my fiance has been able to really make a living out of something we both care about so much.

The Final Fantasy TCG really hasn’t been getting the marketing it needs or deserves. Most of the time that it’s actually promoted, we hear a clear “How did I not know this existed?”

So in case that person is you- The Final Fantasy TCG is a very real, and very good trading card game, similar in function to Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh. There is currently only a single distributor for the game, which is why you can’t find the cards at your local stores such as Wal-Mart or GameStop.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out my fiance’s shop:

He is also holding his very first tournament here in Lake Mary, FL! It’s very soon (March 31st), so if you’re local and interested you should totally check it out.

Did I mention that this is the busiest month of my life? We’re getting married the weekend after the tournament. I think my little sketch at the beginning of this post will have to do for art for just a short while.

I am curious- had any of you heard of this game before I mentioned it? If you hadn’t, is it something you’re interested in? For how massive the Final Fantasy franchise is, it boggles my mind that it’s so under the radar.

This painting was definitely an experience, and I’m so happy that I was able to finish it!

I was inspired to paint Sylphrena after reading Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer, which is the 3rd installment of his Stormlight Archive series. (Seriously, so good. Read it!) I did the initial sketch and fell in love. I -needed- to paint this. It needed to be good.

She seemed so perfect! Coloring her, however, revealed some inherent problems with the composition. It’s something that seemed un-fixable. In the image above, you can see that it is very divided. Each section of the drawing goes in a straight line horizontally and really breaks up the picture. I wasn’t sure that anything could be done at this point (I’d gotten pretty far into painting) without starting over.

I was extra bummed, because this was my first time using a new technique to create a color palette. I’ve always struggled with colors, and this video made everything seem so easy and clear:

So what next? I headed to a new group I joined on Facebook and to Tumblr, and asked for help. I didn’t expect to get so much. Some strangers even went so far as to paint examples of what they were talking about. It was pretty heart-warming! I was not expecting so much help.

What a difference in composition and color- all without changing the actual painting itself. You can see between the storm and trees that instead of a harsh cut off, the color gradients into the distance, adding some much-needed depth to the painting. My original piece was a little too purple, and some color tweaks followed by some hardcore detailing turn what felt like a recycle-bin practice piece into something finished.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, guys. We all need it to grow!

As always, I paint for tips! If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: